Trust
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: Chuck's locked himself in his room and Mike is just sliiightly worried.


**Summary**: Chuck's locked himself in his room and Mike is just sliiightly worried.

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**************Trust**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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"Hey, Chuck?" Mike rapped his knuckles on his best friend's bedroom door, his eyebrows furrowing when he heard a whimper in response. "You okay in there? It's just, you've kinda been in there for half the day already." At first he'd thought Chuck had just pulled another all-nighter, programming something until he'd dropped off just as everyone else woke up, but Chuck hadn't dragged himself out of bed when they'd started working on the cars and he was the lightest sleeper out of all the Burners. When no-one had seen him come out to grab something to eat and he hadn't responded to their messages… Well.

"I'm _fine_, Mike!" Chuck yelled through the closed door, verging on shrill.

Uh-huh. Right. "Claire's here." Which was just as much a lie as Chuck's was, but he just needed to know –

"Tell her, uh, I said hi!"

Okay then – definitely intervention time. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" he said, pitching his voice low and leaning close to the door (not that he needed to do that since everyone else was still working on their car, but it gave an extra level of privacy).

There was silence on the other end. "Y-yeah, I know." At least, Mike thought that's what Chuck said, almost not catching it. "Is there anyone else there?" Chuck's voice was a lot closer now; he was probably just on the other side of the door.

Mike twisted around to double-check, but there was no-one else in sight and he waited a couple of seconds until he'd heard each other of the Burners, and he could hear Jacob puttering around in his kitchen. "S'all clear."

Chuck's door didn't open straight away, and his face didn't greet him when it did either. Mike stepped into his room as quietly as he could and was unsurprised to hear the door close and lock behind him.

When Chuck didn't move or say anything, Mike's brain went into overdrive trying to figure out what was wrong. But he couldn't think of anything – Kane's bots hadn't attacked in a while, and Chuck hadn't touched Jacob's new delicacy the night before…

"Uh, you should probably turn around now. But just so you know, you should really brace yourself. For…yeah." Chuck's voice trailed off into a whisper, completely dejected and Mike did, not caring about whatever had happened, wanting to cheer his best friend up first.

He'd already taken a step towards Chuck when he took in what he was actually seeing, halting in his tracks. Mike's jaw dropped open, an "Oh, wow," falling out his mouth. Chuck had _wings_. Dark green wings that had been held tightly close to Chuck's back, but at Mike's words, they flared out, revealing a leathery membrane.

"'Oh, wow'?" Chuck repeated incredulously. "'Oh, _wow_'? Mike, I'm a _freak_!"

_That _snapped Mike out of his staring and focused on Chuck's face instead. "Hey, you are not a freak," he said softly.

"Yes, I am!" Chuck flailed, his wings flapping in sync with his arms. "And now I'm completely useless too!"

Woah, wait, back up. "Why would you-"

"I. Can't. Ride with you anymore," Chuck said through gritted teeth.

Because Mutt's seats weren't made for people with wings. Oh, dammit. "You've helped us remotely before, remember?" he pointed out. But that wasn't what Chuck was saying, was it? "And who says you can't?" he said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. "We can adjust her for them."

Chuck gaped at him, his wings shivering.

Mike's other eyebrow rose. "You don't think we can?" He took the chance at Chuck's distraction to get closer to him and when Chuck didn't back away, Mike kept going.

"Well – I don't-" Chuck sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, we can."

Mike let out a relieved breath. "C'mere," he said, opening his arms wide.

There was only a slight hesitation in Chuck's movement as he closed the final distance between them.

If felt different from their usual hugs, Chuck standing straight than usual – must be to accommodate the wings' weight, huh. Eventually Chuck slumped against him. "Thanks, bro."

Mike grinned into Chuck's hair. "No problem."

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Damn. At the end, Mike was going to tease Chuck on needing to change his Lord Vanquisher cloak, but that wasn't the right time to mention that. Ah, well.

Prompt is 'everyone could have wings, or one person could have them, doesnt matter to me! go wild!'


End file.
